Today's selection is a David Holmes mix CD that I did for my friend Dave way back in March 2005. Dave and I met in 1998 when I joined the careers service in Bristol; he was one of the ICT team. We immediately bonded over a shared love of music, clubbing and gigs and over the years swapped a ton of mix CDs and DIY rips. David Holmes was a particular favourite, although in hindsight gifting Dave with 5 different homemade CD-Rs might have been a little excessive...
This is the third in the series, mostly collating Holmes' remixes of other artists from the years 1994 to 1999, and I love it. It's a good example of how exciting David Holmes was back then and why he's still up there today, creating music and DJ sets that make you pause and wonder at the brilliance of it all. I saw him perform live several times in the 1990s and 2000s, including a gig by The Free Association which I wrote about in a previous post. David Holmes' latest single, Hope Is The Last Thing To Die, is one of my personal musical highlights of 2021.
The other thing that Dave and I have in common is the same birthday, today. Dave sadly succumbed to cancer in 2009 and I think of him and miss him a lot. We knew each other for a little over 10 years and I will be forever grateful for that. Every birthday, I raise a drink to him and listen to music, some which came out after he passed, but which I know would make him smile and move. This one's for you (again), Dave.
1) Talk About The Blues (For The Saints And Sinners Remix By David Holmes): The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (1999)
2) Wish You Were Here... (David Holmes Vocal): The Aloof (1996)
3) Blow The Whole Joint Up (Let's Slash The Beats Mix By David Holmes): Monkey Mafia (1995)
4) Smoked Oak: David Holmes (1995)
5) Die Laughing (David Holmes Mix 1 By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Therapy? (1994)
6) Failure (David Holmes Remix): Skinny (1998)
7) Hoops (David Holmes Mix): Ruby (1996)
8) I Thought I Caught (David Holmes Remix): Delakota (1998)
9) Live From The Opium Den (David Holmes Main Mix By David Holmes, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns): Justin Warfield (1994)
10) This Is Fascism (Experimental Plastic Racism) (Remix By David Holmes) (Cover of Consolidated): New Fast Automatic Daffodils (1996)
11) The Holiday Girl (Don't Die Just Yet) (Remixed By Arab Strap): David Holmes (1997)
This looks like a really good mix of tracks from Mr Holmes- and sorry to read about your friend Dave too.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Adam, I really enjoyed listening to this mix again. David Holmes is one of those artists that just delivers something special every time.
DeleteI'm sad that I don't get to see Dave, share music, go to gigs, generally just enjoy being in his company and 12 years later, I think of him often. But I consider myself very fortunate to have met him and been his friend for over a decade. That connection to music, joy and happiness does not diminish with time, quite the opposite.